In order to implement the Guiding Opinions of the General Office of the State Council on Enhancing Financial Consumer Rights Protection (Guobanfa No. 381 [2015]), continuously promote the work of financial consumer rights protection, help financial institutions to strengthen management and effectively safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of financial consumers, the branches of the People’s Bank of China (PBC) followed the arrangements made by the PBC headquarters and continued to carry out the supervision and inspection on financial consumer rights protection in the field of payment services in 2018. Inspected institutions included banking financial institutions and non-banking payment institutions, among others.
On the whole, most institutions have gradually enhanced the awareness and understanding of financial consumer rights protection, and a vast majority of the institutions under the inspection were able to conduct self-examination and implement rectifications as required. However, it was found in the inspection that some institutions still had problems in aspects such as the development of institutional mechanism and systems, risk management and acquiring services, financial products marketing and promotion, financial consumer information security and protection, information disclosure, standard terms, complaint management, and publicity, education and training. The PBC notified the institutions of the inspection results in 2018, requiring relevant institutions to establish and improve their long-term mechanisms, further improve the effectiveness of financial consumer rights protection, and facilitate solid implementation of the various requirements for the work of financial consumer rights protection.
